Corona Daily 421: The 4-3-2-1 Football Game

The 91-year old La Liga is Spain’s top football league. Even if you are not a football fan, the names Lionel Messi or Real Madrid would sound familiar. Messi is the all-time top scorer of La Liga. Real Madrid and Barcelona generally compete for the season’s trophy.

Some six months ago, on 15 December, a league game was played between Rayo Vallecano and Albacete. Rayo is a Madrid club, and this was a home game played at the Vallecas stadium in Madrid. Rayo fans are traditionally left-leaning, anti-fascist, and more aggressive than average football fans (meaning they won’t stop at anything). In that game, the opponents Albacete had a Ukrainian player called Roman Zozulya. Rayo fans, for reasons best known to them, think Zozulya is a Nazi supporter.

They turned for the match with posters saying “this is not a place for Nazis.” When the game began, they started chanting anti-Zozulya songs, with ‘Nazi’ in the refrain. Referee Jose Toca’s whistles could occasionally halt the game on-field, but they couldn’t stop the chanting. The relentless abuse continued throughout the first half. Eddy Israfilov, an Albacete player, was shown a red card and sent back. Other than that nothing happened in the 45 minutes of play. The score was 0:0.

During the interval, Zozulya’s team decided they couldn’t take the mass musical abuse any more. Rayo Vallecano agreed with them. The referee gave his consent to halt the game, and resume it in future once a mechanism was found to control the crowd’s emotions.

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The logistics of La Liga are complex, and the day on which the game was set to resume fell on a day after the Spanish lockdown. Already thousands of Spaniards were hospitalized, and hundreds dead, when La Liga came to a complete stop. For nearly three months, no football would be played.

On 8 June, the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez gave the green signal for La Liga’s resurrection. It is noteworthy that schools and universities in Spain remain shut, but football has resumed. Spain understands life’s priorities well. Of course, the games can be watched only on television, no spectators please.

Officials discussed the unprecedented resumption. Playing after three months of inactivity, no pre-season and no fans. And we jump straightaway into a full football game?

No, said one clever official. Not a full game. Let’s start with the unfinished half-game.

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On Wed. 10 June, La Liga’s first resumption match took place between Rayo Vallecano and Albacete.

Players from both sides arrived at the stadium wearing masks and gloves. Their temperatures were checked. Unlike in Germany, they were not tested for corona. A special team was busy disinfecting every ball their feet would touch.

Eddy Israfilov tried to argue he should play. In fact, he had played a few games after the suspended December game. Shouldn’t a red card have an expiry date, he asked. He was being punished for his offence six months ago, was it fair? Yes, it was, said the referee. As a result, Albacete played with 10 players, Rayo Vallecano with 11. Rayo scored a single goal and won the game.

Roman Zozulya played for the entire 45 minutes. There was nobody in the stands to abuse him.

The title “The 4-3-2-1 football game” doesn’t refer to any field formation. The game took 4321 hours from start to finish, becoming the longest game in football’s history.

Ravi